Anti-semitism Wide-spread in South Africa; Minister Warns of Post-war Danger

January 24, 1945

Capetown, South Africa (Jan. 23)

Wide sections of the South African community have become infested with anti-Semitism, Jan Hofmeyer, Minister of Education and Social Welfare, declared here in an address on race relations.

Pointing out that “the germ cells of Nazism have grown in virulence during the war,” Mr. Hofmeyer said that intolerance constituted a grave danger to the country. “It is, perhaps, not without significance,” he continued, “that in South Africa anti-Semitism comes most naturally from those who also believe that in order to save the white man you must keep down the black.” He called for a war on race hatred as a dire threat to Christianity and human welfare.

The menace of anti-Semitism in South Africa was also stressed by Duncan Burnside, prominent Labor M.P., addressing a luncheon arranged by the New Zionist Organization in Johannesburg. Mr. Burnside opined that anti-Semitism will be one of the sharpest political issues in South Africa after the war. “It is tragic,” he declared, “that while we send boys to fight Fascism, we remain the only nation among the Allies allowing anti-Semitic parties to exist. Unfortunately.” he concluded, “we cannot intern a third of the nation.”